Won't happen. They're just passive chunks of hard stuff, probably about half the size of a penny, and not at all fragile.

If putting this sort of system in action is going to "destroy football" then it might as well already be destroyed.

(Sigh) you're not being visionary enough Burnsy think about it- Won't be long before they'll work as cameras too and the ball will be able to tell us everything, no need for ugly baldy refs.....

Yeah, sure, that's exactly what'll happen, just like the invention of the camera led to surveillance on every street ... oh wait.

Seriously though your fears are ridiculous. There is no motive to completely ruin football as a spectacle by fucking up refereeing - who would want that to happen?

2 months later

Can't wait for the first controversial failure of the system.

Would be far more interesting (and likely) if it was offside they were trying to police. Goal-line stuff is definitely the thin end of the wedge, I doubt it'll make much difference to anything.

Lots of terrible offside decisions in Europe using the meatware solution - Wenger's not wrong about that.

Wenger is spot on about everything there, as usual (I figured I'd throw this in here, just in case the link hadn't gotten Biggus riled up enough already).

But really, it's about time. Wenger reiterates what a lot of people have said during the years. There weren't any good arguments against it ten years ago and there aren't any good arguments against it now. Give it a season or two while they work out the kinks and they'll start to look at offsides and penalty situations too.

I think it would definitely improve the decisions on average.

Goal-line tech should be uncontroversial, an offside system is bound to throw up the odd outlier though, giving the Luddites a bit of material to work with.

Yeah, the easiest way to implement it would probably be to not interfere with offsides at all. Leave the call to the linesman during the game. Just run a rerun and check that everyone's onside when a goal is scored. If they're not - call off the goal.

Yep - I don't see much problem with a thirty second replay review of each goal that is scored either, especially if it's automated. Just revert to an indirect free kick if the goal is ruled out.

Of course it'll probably ruin everything.

Yep, the machines will quickly become sentient and take over. We'll be hooked up to the Matrix a few months later and that's that. Also, the fictional nineties world that everyone inhabits in there doesn't have goal cameras of course, meaning it was all for nothing.

I'm currently building a time machine so that I can go back to 1954 and make sure Michel Platini is never born.

This will have the side effect of making Spain win Euro 1984 prematurely ending their era of poor national self esteem, but it's a price worth paying.

I'll also do history another favour and stop past early 1990 to put a hammer through Alex Ferguson's kneecaps before United face Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round.

Oh yes all this has the potential for chaotic comedy, we all know that referees and their assistants are supposed to be unbiased and beyond reproach, but what about those faceless technocrats who will program and calibrate the machines- People like Tim.
Who watches the watchers?

Quis Wengeriet ipsos Wengeries?

  • Who will Wengerise the Wengerites themselves? 😉

Offsides are a bigger problem than hawkeye decisions.
Just review the whole move after the ball goes in. If there is a problem, show it on the stadium tele (if there is one) or to the managers by the 4th official table, with lines showing offside players. Done. Should be free to rewind as far back as need be, whether it's half a second before the goal or 5 seconds back.

:mad: You see! No sooner do we have technology introduced for the maybe 1 time every 2 seasons that theres a question mark about the ball crossing the line and the conversation has been moved on (driven by nuts like Wenger) about how every offside should be analysed, its a wet dream for anoraks who being weeds are opposed to any form of physical contact and so want to turn football into a non-contact sport.

THIN-END-OF-THE-WEDGE.

Biggus wrote:

... about how every offside should be analysed, its a wet dream for anoraks who being weeds are opposed to any form of physical contact and so want to turn football into a non-contact sport.

Other than that they both involve a change to the adjudication of the rules, what does using technology to analyse offside calls have to do with reducing physical contact in football?

Edit: wait, was that self satire Biggus? 🙂

Err it's customary to use proper quotation boxes so everyone knows what you're quoting and what you're posting.
But you being a mod would know that.

Jus' sayin'

There you go. But can you answer the question?